


Here

by cosette141



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Belonging, Friendship, Gen, Short & Sweet, Zuko (Avatar)-centric
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-30
Updated: 2020-05-30
Packaged: 2021-03-02 17:53:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 821
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24450883
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cosette141/pseuds/cosette141
Summary: After Zuko joins the Gaang, he realizes he's finally found a place where he belongs. Oneshot
Comments: 3
Kudos: 103





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**Author's Note:**

> Hi Avatar fandom! :) I'm new :D *waves*
> 
> This is my very first Avatar fic! I've loved the show since I watched it as a kid, and now that it was put on Netflix, I rewatched it and started to get some ideas. I haven't played around with the characters much just yet, so I hope I do the show justice. I plan to be back with more Avatar stories, so I'll be back again soon! Zuko has to be my favorite character in the show, and we simply didn't get enough of him after he joined the Gaang! Thank goodness there's fanfiction to remedy that. :)
> 
> This little story takes place in Book 3, not long after The Southern Raiders episode, and is a little oneshot about our favorite firebender, Zuko.
> 
> I hope you like it and please feel free to let me know what you think! Thanks so much for reading!
> 
> ~cosette141

It never really occurred to him that he's never had friends.

" _Do you think... in another life, we could have been friends?"_

Zuko lay awake, hands crossed behind his head, staring up at the night sky, eyes tracing the stars. Aang's old words playing in his head like a forgotten melody.

A slight shift of his head and tilt of his gaze showed the group he's managed to make himself a part of; Aang, Katara, and Suki asleep soundly in their bedrolls. Sokka and Toph in the middle of a snoring match. Momo asleep on the edge of Aang's pillow and Appa curled up behind them both.

_How could he have spent a year hunting them down_?

Zuko felt his gaze turn troubled, that furrow in his brow that always seemed to make itself at home snuggling between his brows. He felt familiar guilt weigh in his veins, watching the kids around them— _because that's all they were, kids, teenagers, just like him_ —quiet and peaceful.

His apologies have been accepted—even more surprisingly, by Katara, after they returned from their trip. Zuko felt a slight grin lift the corners of his lips. It was she who trusted him first, that fateful day back in Ba Sing Se. With no reason to trust him at all, she did. She offered him a kindness he didn't deserve.

Zuko watched them all sleep, feeling something unfamiliar settle into his gut. Seeing the way his sleeping bag was set perfectly in between Suki and Toph, one with their circle. One with _them_.

His friends.

He smiled involuntarily at the word.

_Friends_.

Other than Ty Lee and Mai, Zuko had never had any… _friends_. But Ty Lee was never his friend, she was Azula's, and Mai and he developed a relationship… but, and he could see it and admit it now, not a friendship. They didn't confide in one another. They didn't have fun together. _Well_ , thought Zuko, b _oth of us are pretty incapable of having fun_. And all through his childhood, any time Zuko found someone to befriend, it wasn't long before they were introduced to Azula and quickly scared off by her as well. _Not that he could blame them_. So, eventually, he stopped trying.

But this… this group of people, there's something… _different_ about this. It filled him with something heavy, something deep in his stomach. Zuko blinked at the stars, trying to put a name to it. And when he found one, he smiled just a little bit more.

_Belonging_.

He was finally in a place where he felt he _belonged_.

He didn't have to constantly battle an inner war to maintain a relationship. Back home, any interaction with Azula warranted constant worry over what was a lie and what wasn't, and whether or not she might kill him. With his father, it was a constant uphill battle for the man's approval of him, and it wasn't a battle Zuko ever got an upper hand. And more than that, to get any sort of approval from him meant going against everything Zuko himself believed to be good and right. Keeping those relationships meant tearing himself apart, just to fit in.

But here?

_Here_ , he could be good without fear that he'd be sent away or challenged to an Agni Kai or worse.

_Here_ , he could release the tightness in his chest and shoulders, the rigidity in his body without needing such strong, high walls to protect himself from feeling.

_Here_ , he could smile. Could _laugh_. And it was okay.

_Here..._

He belonged.

Zuko smiled at the stars, remembering the day he'd spoken to them last.

_"Please," whispered Zuko, lying on his back in the grassy field. He was alone; he left Iroh behind not three days ago, and had nowhere to go, no purpose in sight. He stared up at the stars, and begged them, pleaded with them. "I don't know who I am. I don't know what I want. I don't know what I'm looking for. Please," he felt a burning behind his eyes, letting a tear fall. "Help me find it."_

Zuko felt the same burning behind his eyes, but for a different reason now. A better reason. He gazed at the stars as their light reflected in his eyes. "Thank you," he whispered to them.

He turned away from the sky, onto his side, seeing Katara, Suki and Aang still fast asleep. Zuko closed his eyes, then cracked them back open, almost as if wondering if the sight of them before him would just disappear, and all have been a dream.

But they were still here.

Zuko smiled to himself, eyes heavy with tiredness; a special kind of tiredness.

Relief.

He shut his eyes, letting go of years of stress, years of fear, and years of trying to find something he thought did not exist.

Because it did, and it was here.

And, now, he was too.


End file.
